DOE prepares new board for WESM

By Myrna M. Velasco – June 29, 2017, 10:01 PM

from Manila Bulletin

The ‘real action’ had been on the launch of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao, but torrents of discussion in the power industry had been on the forthcoming changes in the board composition of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation.

PEMC is the spot market operator; and structural as well as personality changes at its board have been widely anticipated following the call made months back by Energy Secretary and PEM Board Chairman Alfonso G. Cusi on the previous board’s “courtesy resignations.”

Industry players, who are also generally WESM trading participants, have been speculating that the new PEM Board will be announced in the Davao event, although as of press time, that has yet to turn up positive.

Sources from the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated that the list for the new PEM Board has already been firmed up and is now just awaiting formal announcement by the energy chief.

Relative to WESM-Mindanao’s launching, Cusi just asserted that its concretization “signals the start of a competitive electricity market in the region, of which costing would be transparent.”

With investment influx in the region in recent years, Mindanao grid is now teeming with supply – but capacities not underwritten by supply contracts still struggled through time on having an alternative market.

The energy secretary explained that the WESM will set in place “a transparent electricity market with which Mindanao power generators will have an avenue to trade un-contracted power capacity.”

He added that the spot market “will provide consumers more sources of electricity to choose from, increasing their chances of securing lower-priced energy.”